Splenda: The Newest Artificial Sweetener and Why You Should Avoid It

Have you ever looked around while shopping and noticed that more and more items these days contain artificial sweeteners? If you have, you're not alone.

Upon shopping at my local Marks & Spencer grocery store and purchasing what I felt would be a highly nutritious (and delicious) set of natural yogurts filled with exotic fruits, I discovered that I had made the unfortunate mistake of falling victim to misleading labeling. On the package, in very small letters, the yogurt read: "contains sugar and other sweeteners." Other sweeteners. I've gotten very used to seeing this lately. I try to make it a general rule to normally read all labels and check the list of ingredients on items that I purchase. Today, however, I slipped, and as a result had to toss out the yogurts that I had bought.

Up until today, I had considered myself something of an expert when it came to sussing out what was wholesome and what was not. I could spot fruit juices a mile away that have other sweeteners in them as they are usually labeled with a shiny red and bold NEW! and followed by the highly suspicious wording, "Natural," or "Healthy Choice," on them, which usually guarantees quite the opposite in most cases. These things I tend to shy away from as I don't feel that artificial sweeteners are at all natural or healthy.

The companies responsible for making these artificial sweeteners all have a long and distinctively dubious track record. Take aspartame, for instance. Aspartame is the sweetener that is sold under the product names of Equal and NutraSweet and has been on the market since 1981. It is a chemical that can result in the accumulation of formaldehyde in the brain, and has had more complaints than any other food additive available to the public. It has been linked to MS, lupus disease, fibromyalgia and numerous other central nervous system disorders. Some researchers have even linked aspartame with depression, manic episodes and male infertility.